Model-View-Controller architectural pattern and its evolution in graphical user interface frameworks

Model-View-Controller (MVC) is an architectural pattern used in software development for graphical user interfaces. It was one of the first proposed solutions in the late 1970s to the Smart UI anti-pattern, which refers to the act of writing all domain logic into a user interface. The original MVC pattern has since evolved in multiple directions, with various names and may confuse many. The goal of this thesis is to present the origin of the MVC pattern and how it has changed over time. Software architecture in general and the MVC���s evolution within web applications are not the primary focus. Fundamen- tal designs are abstracted, and then used to examine the more recent versions. Prob- lems with the subject and its terminology are also presented.

Designing a user interface for game developers to enter game specific information

Designing user interfaces for novel software systems can be challenging since the usability preferences of the users are not well known. This thesis presents a usability study conducted for the development of a user interface for game developers to enter game specific information. By conducting usability testing, the usability preferences of game developers were explored and the design was shaped according to their needs. An assessment of the overall usability of the final design is provided together with the main findings that include the usability preferences and design recommendations. The results showed that the most valuable usability preferences are quickness, error tolerance and the ability to constantly inspect the entered information.

Mirage 2: A responsive user interface for DSpace

Presentation at Open Repositories 2014, Helsinki, Finland, June 9-13, 2014

Les personnes ��g��es face au d��fi d'utilisation des nouvelles technologies : ��tude de l���utilisabilit�� des interfaces de t��l��phones portables

L�����volution technologique et l'accroissement de la population vieillissante sont deux tendances majeures de la derni��re d��cennie. Durant cette p��riode, la prolif��ration ubiquitaire de la t��l��phonie mobile a chang�� les habitudes de communication des gens. Le changement constant des appareils t��l��phoniques portatifs, l'augmentation des fonctions, la diversit�� iconographique, la vari��t�� des interfaces et la complexit�� de navigation exigent aujourd���hui non seulement plus de temps d'adaptation et d���apprentissage, mais repr��sentent aussi un effort cognitif important. Les technologies d'information et de communication (TIC) sont devenues des outils incontournables de la vie moderne. Pour les personnes ��g��es, cet univers en perp��tuelle mutation avec ces nouveaux appareils repr��sente un obstacle �� l���acc��s �� l���information et contribue ainsi au gap g��n��rationnel. Le manque de r��f��rence et de soutien et les d��ficiences physiques ou cognitives, que certaines personnes d��veloppent en vieillissant, rendent l'usage de ce type d���objet souvent impossible. Pourtant, les produits intelligents plus accessibles, tant au niveau physique que cognitif sont une r��elle n��cessit�� au sein de notre soci��t�� moderne permettant aux personnes ��g��es de vivre de mani��re plus autonome et �� connect��e ��. Cette recherche a pour but d'exposer les d��fis d'usage des t��l��phones portables existants et d'identifier en particulier les probl��mes d���usage que les personnes ��g��es manifestent. L�����tude vise la tranche de population qui est peu habitu��e aux technologies de communications qui ne ciblent le plus souvent que les plus jeunes et les professionnels. C���est en regardant les habitudes d���usage, que la recherche qualitative nous permettra d�����tablir un profil des personnes ��g��es par rapport au TIC et de mieux comprendre les d��fis li��s �� la perception, compr��hension et l���usage des interfaces de t��l��phones portables.

Le r��le des interfaces dans l���exp��rience de jeu vid��o : le jeu du ping-pong et son adaptation sur des plateformes num��riques

Le succ��s commercial des jeux vid��o nous montre qu���ils sont devenus une alternative non n��gligeable en mati��re de loisir et de divertissement. En observant les tendances, on constate que les concepteurs de jeux vid��o cherchent �� transposer ou adapter les loisirs comme la danse, l���interpr��tation de la musique ou la pratique d���un sport dans le contexte de jeux vid��o (l���univers virtuel) et ceci est devenu encore plus ��vident depuis l���apparition des nouvelles technologies int��grant le mouvement comme mode d'interaction. En rapport aux activit��s dont les jeux vid��o s���inspirent, ces tendances entra��nent des changements consid��rables sur l���aspect formel de l���activit�� ludique et notamment l���interaction. Dans le cas particulier du tennis de table, ou ping-pong dans le langage courant, il semble y avoir des diff��rences en terme de plaisir lors de la pratique de ce loisir de fa��on traditionnelle ou en mode virtuel dans ses diff��rentes adaptations. Le but de cette recherche est de mettre en ��vidence les diff��rences entre l���appr��ciation de l���interaction avec le contr��leur multifonctionnel Wiimote et une raquette traditionnelle de ping-pong et de d��couvrir les implications sur l���exp��rience du plaisir de la transposition du jeu ping-pong traditionnel compar�� aux adaptations sur la console Wii. Ainsi, en regard du CLASSIC GAME MODEL de Juul (2005) et du mod��le THE FOUR FUN KEYS de Lazzaro (2008) nous comparons les deux modes d���interaction, jeu traditionnel avec le jeu virtuel, sur le plan formel du jeu et sur les dimensions du plaisir que chacun procure. Les r��sultats obtenus par l���observation des tests de jeu et l���entremise des autres outils permettent de souligner le r��le d��terminant des interfaces dans l���engagement des joueurs et de montrer les limites des interfaces digitales par rapport �� celle des jeux traditionnels.

The DIADEM Software Development Methodology extended to Multimedia Interfaces

DIADEM, created by THOMSON-CSF, is a methodology for specifying and developing user interfaces. It improves productivity of the interface development process as well as quality of the interface. The method provides support to user interface development in three aspects. (1) DIADEM defines roles of people involved and their tasks and organises the sequence of activities. (2) It provides graphical formalisms supporting information exchange between people. (3) It offers a basic set of rules for optimum human-machine interfaces. The use of DIADEM in three areas (process control, sales support, and multimedia presentation) was observed and evaluated by our laboratory in the European project DIAMANTA (ESPRIT P20507). The method provides an open procedure that leaves room for adaptation to a specific application and environment. This paper gives an overview of DIADEM and shows how to extend formalisms for developing multimedia interfaces.

A web 2.0 user interface for wide-area resource monitoring

Resource monitoring in distributed systems is required to understand the 'health' of the overall system and to help identify particular problems, such as dysfunctional hardware or faulty system or application software. Monitoring systems such as GridRM provide the ability to connect to any number of different types of monitoring agents and provide different views of the system, based on a client's particular preferences. Web 2.0 technologies, and in particular 'mashups', are emerging as a promising technique for rapidly constructing rich user interfaces, that combine and present data in intuitive ways. This paper describes a Web 2.0 user interface that was created to expose resource data harvested by the GridRM resource monitoring system.

Issues and benefits of using 3D Interfaces: visual and verbal tasks

Spatial memory is important for locating objects in hierarchical data structures, such as desktop folders. There are, however, some contradictions in literature concerning the effectiveness of 3D user interfaces when compared to their 2D counterparts. This paper uses a task-based approach in order to investigate the effectiveness of adding a third dimension to specific user tasks, i.e. the impact of depth on navigation in a 3D file manager. Results highlight issues and benefits of using 3D interfaces for visual and verbal tasks, and introduces the possible existence of a correlation between aptitude scores achieved on the Guilford- Zimmerman Orientation Survey and Electroencephalography- measured brainwave activity as participants search for targets of variable perceptual salience in 2D and 3D environments.

Graphical constraints: a graphical user interface for constraint problems

A constraint satisfaction problem is a classical artificial intelligence paradigm characterized by a set of variables (each variable with an associated domain of possible values), and a set of constraints that specify relations among subsets of these variables. Solutions are assignments of values to all variables that satisfy all the constraints. Many real world problems may be modelled by means of constraints. The range of problems that can use this representation is very diverse and embraces areas like resource allocation, scheduling, timetabling or vehicle routing. Constraint programming is a form of declarative programming in the sense that instead of specifying a sequence of steps to execute, it relies on properties of the solutions to be found, which are explicitly defined by constraints. The idea of constraint programming is to solve problems by stating constraints which must be satisfied by the solutions. Constraint programming is based on specialized constraint solvers that take advantage of constraints to search for solutions. The success and popularity of complex problem solving tools can be greatly enhanced by the availability of friendly user interfaces. User interfaces cover two fundamental areas: receiving information from the user and communicating it to the system; and getting information from the system and deliver it to the user. Despite its potential impact, adequate user interfaces are uncommon in constraint programming in general. The main goal of this project is to develop a graphical user interface that allows to, intuitively, represent constraint satisfaction problems. The idea is to visually represent the variables of the problem, their domains and the problem constraints and enable the user to interact with an adequate constraint solver to process the constraints and compute the solutions. Moreover, the graphical interface should be capable of configure the solver���s parameters and present solutions in an appealing interactive way. As a proof of concept, the developed application ��� GraphicalConstraints ��� focus on continuous constraint programming, which deals with real valued variables and numerical constraints (equations and inequalities). RealPaver, a state-of-the-art solver in continuous domains, was used in the application. The graphical interface supports all stages of constraint processing, from the design of the constraint network to the presentation of the end feasible space solutions as 2D or 3D boxes.

Visual IMML: um perfil UML para a modelagem de interfaces de usu��rio

The software development processes proposed by the most recent approaches in Software Engineering make use old models. UML was proposed as the standard language for modeling. The user interface is an important part of the software and has a fundamental importance to improve its usability. Unfortunately the standard UML does not offer appropriate resources to model user interfaces. Some proposals have already been proposed to solve this problem: some authors have been using models in the development of interfaces (Model Based Development) and some proposals to extend UML have been elaborated. But none of them considers the theoretical perspective presented by the semiotic engineering, that considers that, through the system, the designer should be able to communicate to the user what he can do, and how to use the system itself. This work presents Visual IMML, an UML Profile that emphasizes the aspects of the semiotic engineering. This Profile is based on IMML, that is a declarative textual language. The Visual IMML is a proposal that aims to improve the specification process by using a visual modeling (using diagrams) language. It proposes a new set of modeling elements (stereotypes) specifically designed to the specification and documentation of user interfaces, considering the aspects of communication, interaction and functionality in an integrated manner

Network node with wireless and wired interfaces: Nios II processor and uClinux to development of a NCAP embedded (IEEE 1451.1) with two interfaces, wireless (IEEE 1451.5) and wired (IEEE p1451.2)

This paper presents a NCAP embedded on DE2 kit with Nios II processor and uClinux to development of a network gateway with two interfaces, wireless (ZigBee) and wired (RS232) based on IEEE 1451. Both the communications, wireless and wired, were developed to be point-to-point and working with the same protocols, based on IEEE 1451.0-2007. The tests were made using a microcomputer, which through of browser was possible access the web page stored in the DE2 kit and send commands of control and monitoring to both TIMs (WTIM and STIM). The system describes a different form of development of the NCAP node to be applied in different environments with wired or wireless in the same node. �� 2011 IEEE.

User interaction widgets for interactive theorem proving

Matita (that means pencil in Italian) is a new interactive theorem prover under development at the University of Bologna. When compared with state-of-the-art proof assistants, Matita presents both traditional and innovative aspects. The underlying calculus of the system, namely the Calculus of (Co)Inductive Constructions (CIC for short), is well-known and is used as the basis of another mainstream proof assistant���Coq���with which Matita is to some extent compatible. In the same spirit of several other systems, proof authoring is conducted by the user as a goal directed proof search, using a script for storing textual commands for the system. In the tradition of LCF, the proof language of Matita is procedural and relies on tactic and tacticals to proceed toward proof completion. The interaction paradigm offered to the user is based on the script management technique at the basis of the popularity of the Proof General generic interface for interactive theorem provers: while editing a script the user can move forth the execution point to deliver commands to the system, or back to retract (or ���undo���) past commands. Matita has been developed from scratch in the past 8 years by several members of the Helm research group, this thesis author is one of such members. Matita is now a full-fledged proof assistant with a library of about 1.000 concepts. Several innovative solutions spun-off from this development effort. This thesis is about the design and implementation of some of those solutions, in particular those relevant for the topic of user interaction with theorem provers, and of which this thesis author was a major contributor. Joint work with other members of the research group is pointed out where needed. The main topics discussed in this thesis are briefly summarized below. Disambiguation. Most activities connected with interactive proving require the user to input mathematical formulae. Being mathematical notation ambiguous, parsing formulae typeset as mathematicians like to write down on paper is a challenging task; a challenge neglected by several theorem provers which usually prefer to fix an unambiguous input syntax. Exploiting features of the underlying calculus, Matita offers an efficient disambiguation engine which permit to type formulae in the familiar mathematical notation. Step-by-step tacticals. Tacticals are higher-order constructs used in proof scripts to combine tactics together. With tacticals scripts can be made shorter, readable, and more resilient to changes. Unfortunately they are de facto incompatible with state-of-the-art user interfaces based on script management. Such interfaces indeed do not permit to position the execution point inside complex tacticals, thus introducing a trade-off between the usefulness of structuring scripts and a tedious big step execution behavior during script replaying. In Matita we break this trade-off with tinycals: an alternative to a subset of LCF tacticals which can be evaluated in a more fine-grained manner. Extensible yet meaningful notation. Proof assistant users often face the need of creating new mathematical notation in order to ease the use of new concepts. The framework used in Matita for dealing with extensible notation both accounts for high quality bidimensional rendering of formulae (with the expressivity of MathMLPresentation) and provides meaningful notation, where presentational fragments are kept synchronized with semantic representation of terms. Using our approach interoperability with other systems can be achieved at the content level, and direct manipulation of formulae acting on their rendered forms is possible too. Publish/subscribe hints. Automation plays an important role in interactive proving as users like to delegate tedious proving sub-tasks to decision procedures or external reasoners. Exploiting the Web-friendliness of Matita we experimented with a broker and a network of web services (called tutors) which can try independently to complete open sub-goals of a proof, currently being authored in Matita. The user receives hints from the tutors on how to complete sub-goals and can interactively or automatically apply them to the current proof. Another innovative aspect of Matita, only marginally touched by this thesis, is the embedded content-based search engine Whelp which is exploited to various ends, from automatic theorem proving to avoiding duplicate work for the user. We also discuss the (potential) reusability in other systems of the widgets presented in this thesis and how we envisage the evolution of user interfaces for interactive theorem provers in the Web 2.0 era.

Performance assessment of an architecture with adaptative interfaces for people with special needs

People in industrial societies carry more and more portable electronic devices (e.g., smartphone or console) with some kind of wireles connectivity support. Interaction with auto-discovered target devices present in the environment (e.g., the air conditioning of a hotel) is not so easy since devices may provide inaccessible user interfaces (e.g., in a foreign language that the user cannot understand). Scalability for multiple concurrent users and response times are still problems in this domain. In this paper, we assess an interoperable architecture, which enables interaction between people with some kind of special need and their environment. The assessment, based on performance patterns and antipatterns, tries to detect performance issues and also tries to enhance the architecture design for improving system performance. As a result of the assessment, the initial design changed substantially. We refactorized the design according to the Fast Path pattern and The Ramp antipattern. Moreover, resources were correctly allocated. Finally, the required response time was fulfilled in all system scenarios. For a specific scenario, response time was reduced from 60 seconds to less than 6 seconds.

Dise��o de una estrategia para la definici��n de proyectos a partir de la vigilancia tecnol��gica: aplicaci��n a las interfaces naturales

A la hora de afrontar un proyecto de investigaci��n, no basta con una vigilancia tradicional del entorno. Ya que debido a lo cambiante del mundo, a la globalizaci��n, a lo r��pido que se desarrollan nuevas tecnolog��as y productos es preciso realizar un proceso sistem��tico que permita a las organizaciones o empresas anticiparse a los cambios tecnol��gicos. En este contexto, el dise��o de metodolog��as basadas en la Vigilancia Tecnol��gica (VT) permite gestionar la actividad innovadora de organizaciones o empresas facilitando el proceso de generaci��n de ideas para el desarrollo de productos o servicios. Es por ello que en este Proyecto de Fin de Grado se ha dise��ado una estrategia para aplicar metodolog��as de Vigilancia Tecnol��gica aplicadas a un proyecto de I+D que estudia las Interfaces Naturales de Usuario (NUI). Para ello se ha partido de la metodolog��a de trabajo basada en el proceso de Vigilancia Tecnol��gica e Inteligencia Competitiva del proyecto CETISME, identificando claramente cada una de las fases que lo componen: identificaci��n de objetivos, selecci��n de las fuentes de informaci��n, b��squeda y almacenamiento de la informaci��n, an��lisis de la informaci��n y por ��ltimo validaci��n de la informaci��n que concluye con la creaci��n de informes de Vigilancia Tecnol��gica. Por lo tanto, para cada una de las fases que componen lo que com��nmente se llama el ciclo de la vigilancia, se ha explicado en primer lugar en qu�� consisten, que estrategias a seguir son las m��s adecuadas as�� como la manera de llevarlas a cabo, y por ��ltimo, si fuera necesario, qu�� herramientas (desde bases de datos a software) son necesarias o son de utilidad para llevar a cabo el proceso y optimizarlo. De esta manera, como se ver�� a lo largo de este documento, la aplicaci��n de dicha metodolog��a permitir�� a las organizaciones o empresas obtener situaciones ventajosas a la hora de innovar, captar oportunidades o detectar amenazas, identificar competidores o alianzas potenciales, entre otros. ABSTRACT. When taking over a research project, a traditional surveillance of the environment is not enough. Mainly due to the changing the world, to the globalization, to how fast new technologies and products are developed, is necessary to make a systematic process that enables organizations or companies anticipate to technological changes. In this context, the design of methodologies based on the Technology Watch (TW) allows managing the innovative activity of organizations or companies facilitating the process of generating ideas for products or services development. For this reason, in this Thesis a strategy for applying Technological Watch methodologies applied to a R&D project studying Natural User Interfaces (NUI) has been designed. To achieve this goal, the starting point was the CETISME project methodologies, which are based on the Technology Watch and the Competitive Intelligence process, clearly identifying each of the phases that compose it: identification of objectives, selection of the information sources, storage, search and analysis of the information, and finally validating the information that concludes with the creation of Technological Watch reports. Therefore, for each of the phases composing what is commonly known as the monitoring cycle, it has been explained in first place what they consist of, what strategies are more adequate as well as how they should be implemented, and finally, if necessary, what tools (from databases to software) are needed or are useful for managing the process and optimize it. Thus, as discussed throughout this document, the application of said methodology will allow organizations or companies to obtain advantageous situations when it comes to innovate, catch opportunities or detect threats, to identify competitors or potential alliances, among others.

Handbook of research on user interface design and evaluation for mobile technology

In recent years, mobile technology has been one of the major growth areas in computing. Designing the user interface for mobile applications, however, is a very complex undertaking which is made even more challenging by the rapid technological developments in mobile hardware. Mobile human-computer interaction, unlike desktop-based interaction, must be cognizant of a variety of complex contextual factors affecting both users and technology. The Handbook of Research on User Interface Design and Evaluation provides students, researchers, educators, and practitioners with a compendium of research on the key issues surrounding the design and evaluation of mobile user interfaces, such as the physical environment and social context in which a mobile device is being used and the impact of multitasking behavior typically exhibited by mobile-device users. Compiling the expertise of over 150 leading experts from 26 countries, this exemplary reference tool will make an indispensable addition to every library collection.